When Bill Belovicz and his wife Paula Pendergrass started their custom bakery, Cakes Alive, a few years back they had two main goals in mind: To find something to do after retirement and to give back to the community.

After a couple of years of donating birthday cakes to Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Belovicz came up with another sweet idea, which he calls Sweet Sharing.

The concept is simple: A customer orders a cake or other sweet concoction from the business and 15 percent of what the customer pays for the order is donated to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of their choice.

“It’s a way to spread it around some and help people do something they might have done any way, and still get something good for their charity out of it,” Pendergrass said.

Belovicz said the process is easy. When an order is paid for, if the customer mentions the Sweet Sharing program, he hands the customer a list with participating groups. Currently participating are Boys and Girls Club of the Arkansas River Valley, Saint John Catholic School PTO, Relay for Life, Big Brothers, Big Sisters of North Central Arkansas, Main Street Mission, Dardanelle Cub Scout 316, Equestrian Zone, Fraternal Order of Eagles No. 3928, Pope County Senior Activity Center, Help Network and Arkansas River Valley Arts Center.

“Let’s say you’re buying a cake. We say, ‘Here’s the cake.’ It’s $20. You can look at our list and say, ‘I’d like to donate to Main Street Mission.’ You can pick anyone on the list,” he said.

Belovicz said he and Pendergrass have publicized the donation option at events like Mistletoe Market and others, explaining nothing extra is added to the total — 15 percent is just rebated and then given to a charity. Though some customers have taken advantage of the opportunity to give to a charity of their choice, he said he’s been disappointed with the response.

“We have a sign out there about it. There are people who don’t want to do it and there are people who apparently the idea is strange to,” Belovicz said. “We’ve had people who thought we were charging them extra to get that 15 percent. It’s gotten very little use. That’s the honest truth.”

“It’s been a little frustrating,” Pendergrass agreed.

Though the results have not been quite what they may have hoped, Belovicz and Pendergrass said they are glad to be able to give back to the community through their business.

“We just thought it was a good idea,” Pendergrass said. “We donate a lot. We’ve done Sweetheart Saturday for four years. We’ve done Mistletoe Market, Relay for Life.”

“There’s no magic in it,” Belovicz interjected. “There was no great strike of lightning to my head and a voice that said ‘You will go to heaven if you do this.’ It’s a business, but we give back to the maximum extent we can.”

Pendergrass said she is happy to be a part of such a generous community.

“It’s very clear that people in the Valley are very actively trying to help other people in any way they can,” Pendergrass said. “... We wanted to be able to use (the business) to help the community. We had just joined Kiwanis and were really interested in doing things in the community. It was just kind of a natural evolution.”

Belovicz said the business still serves a dual purpose for the couple and will continue to do so.

“It keeps us out of trouble. Who knows what we would do otherwise?” Belovicz joked.

You can add a nonprofit organization to the list of donation options by calling 967-9568.